PRCC handed out degrees to 990 students Wednesday at Forrest County Multi Purpose Center.
Ed Kemp/Hattiesburg American

At age 16, one was homeless and the other was working full time at a fast-food restaurant.

Now, they have Ivy League schools knocking on their doors.

Tiffany Gragg and Trevor Creighton have experienced the unlikeliest journeys to become the cream of the academic crop.

"They both have a kind of rags-to-riches story," said Pearl River Community College English instructor Terri Smith Ruckel, who is faculty adviser for the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society to which Gragg and Creighton belong.

"You're in a place where you think your educational opportunities are nil, and then a door opens up for you."

Gragg and Creighton picked up their diplomas Wednesday morning at PRCC's commencement ceremony, with acceptance letters from Columbia University in their back pockets, so to speak.

In total, 990 students received their degrees at the Forrest County Multi Purpose Center.

Eric Clark, executive director of the state's community college system, gave the commencement address with a message of valuing education.

"Education in the 21st century is more important than it ever has been before," Clark said.

Consider it a lesson already learned by Gragg and Creighton.

"It's surreal. I'm ecstatic," said Creighton, who is Irish. "I just went to community college to better myself, and now I'm going to one of the best institutions in the country."

Surreal is a good way to describe the way Gragg's and Creighton's lives have unfolded.

So is ironic.

Gragg, 28, who sells homes as the vice president of Crye-Leike Signature One Realty, was once without a home.

When she was 15 and living in Houston, Gragg dropped out of high school and left her home in the middle of family turmoil.

She recalls a rocky two-year period of living with friends, living in cars and living a life atypical of most teenagers.

"It was just a really rebellious time of my life," she recalls.

Thanks to the influence of her grandparents Bill and Gwen Duckworth, she completed her GED. She followed them when they moved to Hattiesburg from Houston. She started a career in real estate and eventually began a family.

She and her husband, Brandon, have two daughters, Isabella Angelle, 6, and Ava Joy, 4.

Gragg also began classes at Pearl River Community, first in 2006 and then full time in 2011.

Gragg, who earned her degree in English, has been racking up academic honors ever since.

"I didn't feel like the same person that I did a few years ago," said Gragg, who was named to the All-Mississippi Academic Team among other achievements. "I look back at my life, and it's like looking at a completely different person."

As for Creighton, 34, the native of Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland, completed school at age 16 in Northern Ireland and began work at McDonald's.

That didn't work out.

He ended up in America with romantic stars in his eyes, following a girl he met on vacation in New York.

That too didn't work out.

He did eventually meet a girl — Jolene — whom he married and followed down to Hattiesburg so that she could study children's literature at the University of Southern Mississippi. He picked up a job as a technician at Excel Injection Molding.

That's when he decided to go back to school — to get a certificate in electronics.

But he found his true calling in a creative writing class taught by instructor Ruckel, which he says changed his life.

"I mean I didn't even know that people could get paid for that sort of thing," said Creighton, who writes in his words "whimsical stories" in several genres, including children's stories.

"I was pretty ignorant."

Now, he's planning on studying creative writing at Columbia, which, by the way, comes with its own improbable story.

The honors student applied for, and received, the Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholarship, which pays up to $30,000 annually for up to three years.

Of the 3,700 students who applied for it, a mere 85 got the scholarship.

Ruckel said getting into Columbia will do wonders for Creighton, whom she describes as one of the most creative students she's ever taught.

"You're pretty much assured that you will have a creative writing career when you graduate from Columbia's creating writing program," she said.

Creighton said he's determined to make it work with his wife, Jolene, despite the financial challenges the couple will face in New York City even with his scholarship.

"It's Columbia or bust," he said with a laugh.

As for Gragg, a New Orleans native, she said she's leaning toward going to Tulane University, explaining that the cost of living in New Orleans is more manageable for her and her family. She'll have a $10,000 Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society to help pay the bills.

Nothing's written in stone, however, when it comes to her decision next fall. Either way she's come a long way.

"I remember being scared of getting my GED. That terrified me," she said.

"Now looking at the kind of schools that have accepted me, and the scholarship opportunities that I have, it's pretty incredible."